The Minimal Manual

Carroll, John M.; Smith-Kerker, Penny L.; Ford, James R.; Mazur-Rimetz, Sandra A.

doi:10.1207/s15327051hci0302_2

Cited by 176 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In agreement with this point of view, Carroll (1985) and, in a more recent article strikingly entitled "The Minimal Manual", Carroll, Smith-Kerker, Ford and Mazur-Rimetz (1988) showed that standard text-editor manuals can be made more effective if they are shortened and focus just on the information necessary to perform the skill. Similarly, in the context of operator training, it has become clear that the emphasis on theoretical aspects of a system's functioning, so frequently seen in introductory courses, is often disproportionate to the actual value of such knowledge.…”

Section: Guidelines For Instructional Control Of Transfermentioning

confidence: 88%

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The ADAPT design model: towards instructional control of transfer

Jelsma

Merriënboer

1990

Instr Sci

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Abstract. This paper presents a detailed description of the ADAPT (Apply Delayed Automatization for Positive Transfer) design model. ADAPT is based upon production system models of learning and provides guidelines for developing instructional systems that offer transfer of learned siriUs. The model suggests that transfer of training can be attributed to procedure overlap between the original training task and the transfer task, as well as to analogy between new problem solving situations and acquired cognitive schemata. More specifically, the role of schemata in transfer is thought to increase as the transfer task becomes more different from the original training task. Several instructional tactics are suggested to optimize transfer of training. Declarative tactics pertain to the instructional design for acquiring knowledge which is relevant to performance of the skill; such tactics include demonstrating the skill, verbal instruction, the encouragement to paraphrase particular pieces of information, the application of advance organizers and mnemonic systems, and the presentation of concrete models and examples. Procedural tactics refer to the instructional design for acquiring the skill, that is, to the design of practice; such tactics include the encouragement to imitate the skill, the application of variability of practice and contextual interference, and the presentation of annotated examples. The relevance of ADAPT is evaluated and implications for future research are presented.

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Section: Guidelines For Instructional Control Of Transfermentioning

confidence: 88%

“…In general, the "minimal manual" principle (Carroll et al, 1988) can be applied to present information on the use of the programming environment and the programming language. This approach includes the most important declarative tactics that aim at near transfer.…”

Section: Introductory Computer Programmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ADAPT design model: towards instructional control of transfer

Jelsma

Merriënboer

1990

Instr Sci

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“…Develop interfaces [12] that are the minimal counterparts of the minimal manual [3]. If users are going to explore, regardless of the number of available features, minimal interfaces might help (a) limit false affordances and (b) reduce the time needed for exhaustive exploration.…”

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confidence: 99%

The micro-structure of use of help

Novick

Andrade

Bean

2009

Proceedings of the 27th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication

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To see whether, from the user's standpoint, muddling through with trial-and-error exploration of the interface actually works as well as consulting help, we analyzed video recordings of 14 subjects using Microsoft Publisher. We segmented their attempts at accomplishing four tasks into episodes, lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes, using four problem-solving approaches: help, recall, and trial-and-error. The subjects' overall rates of success with trial-and-error were higher than with help. We present trends of use of the approaches across the four tasks, review the apparent causes of success and failure when using the approaches, and develop an affordance-knowledge model that helps to explain people's preference for muddling through over using help. We conclude by discussing the model's implications for developers of systems and writers of help.

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“…There are also systems [46,47] that integrate examples into tutorial systems for programmers based on Caroll's theory on minimalist documentation [48,49]. Similarly, other systems also provide sets of annotated examples to support learners, called 'case libraries' [50].…”

Section: Learning From Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Understanding Successful Novice Example Use in Blocks-Based Programming

Ichinco¹,

Harms²,

Kelleher³

2017

VLSS

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Blocks-based environments are frequently used in settings where there is little or no access to teachers. Effective support for examples in blocks-based environments may help novices learn in the absence of human experts. However, existing research suggests that novices can struggle to use examples effectively. We conducted a study exploring the impacts of example-task similarity and annotation style on children's abilities to use examples in a blocks-based environment. To gain understanding of where and why children struggle, we examined the degree to which (1) children were able to map a task to its corresponding example, and (2) their programming behavior predicted task success. The results suggest that annotations improve task performance to an extent and that mappings and programming behavior can begin to explain the remaining problems novices have using examples.

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The Minimal Manual

Cited by 176 publications

References 8 publications

The ADAPT design model: towards instructional control of transfer

The ADAPT design model: towards instructional control of transfer

The micro-structure of use of help

Towards Understanding Successful Novice Example Use in Blocks-Based Programming

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